During Eating Disorders Awareness Week (EDAW), many teachers across the country will be preparing lessons and activities that promote a healthy body image among students. Parents will attend community events, and may even make an extra effort to promote a body positive environment within their homes. While all of these efforts and activities are both commended and encouraged during EDAW, the efforts can’t stop here

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the National Eating Disorder Information Centre (NEDIC) and we will be commemorating Eating Disorder Awareness Week (EDAW) February 1st through 7th with a host of activities to help raise awareness about this often misunderstood mental health condition.

You have probably heard of the stages of change, a model that identifies the different stages individuals cycle through as they attempt to modify a negative behaviour...The interesting thing about these stages is that they are not linear - a person may start at the second or third stage, or they may reach the final stage and find themselves starting back at one all over again. Eating disorders (ED) are a great example of this

Holidays are a time to be thankful for what you have and giving to others – but they are also a time of abundant food-oriented activities spent with friends and family. This time can be anxiety-provoking, triggering and distressing for someone recovering from an eating disorder. As the holidays come to a close, we are faced with the upcoming New Year. In our culture, New Years is idealized as a time for major change and reinvention. Every year, many of us make New Year’s resolutions – these resolutions invite us to think about our selves and how we’d like to be. Although this can be a time of healthy reflection - for some, it can also be a time when disordered thinking emerges. A time that triggers uncontrollable urges to make rigorous rules regarding eating, dieting and exercising. New Years resolutions can stir strict, critical and perfectionist thoughts and lure some off the track of recovery.

There’s a fine line between skydiving and holiday dinners — at least for those of us who struggle with disordered eating.

Walking into your grandparent’s house feels less like a family reunion and more like climbing into a remarkably small airplane that you’ll jump out of momentarily. Seeing the food on the table is like glancing out of the window at twelve thousand feet. Grabbing a plate feels like free fall.

This month the NEDIC Outreach and Education team was involved with various presentations across the GTA. We facilitated a presentation in Peel Region through Peel Children’s Centre for educators, social workers, child and youth workers and youth counsellors. This presentation was on eating disorders, concurrent disorders, what to look for and how to help. We have also facilitated two conference presentations at the Ontario School Counselor’s Association (OSCA) on eating disorder prevention and starting conversations about eating disorders in a province-wide conference for all school counselors in Ontario.

Imagine someone blindfolded you to hear my conversations with my therapist over the last four years. You would know I have anorexia nervosa. You would know that I am stable in recovery even though comments about my weight easily trigger me. To be fair, I am twice the size I was at my sickest.

Eventually, you would learn that I have Cerebral Palsy and use a wheelchair.

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Read about how real life experiences impact self-concept and body image. Writers reflect a diversity of opinions and perspectives.

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